


Pathfinders & Trailblazers

by Liara_90



Series: A Home of Sticks [7]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Alcohol, Canon Compliant, Cigarettes, Established Relationship, F/F, F/M, Flirting, Fluff, Kinda, Multi, POV Third Person, Polyamory, Pre-Canon, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Valentine's Day, Wordcount: 5.000-10.000, technically
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-15
Updated: 2018-02-15
Packaged: 2019-03-18 18:08:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13687017
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Liara_90/pseuds/Liara_90
Summary: It’s Valentine’s Day in Vale. An easy holiday for Taiyang, but a tough one for Raven.Summer Rose is determined to find a way to make it work for the three of them.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> The prompt was “ _rose petal trail for poly STR_ ”. Squint and you might spot it.

* * *

● 1 1/2 Ounces whipped cream vodka

● 1 pint vanilla ice cream

● 1/4 Teaspoon pure vanilla extract

● 2 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream

● 1 Tall Can of Schnee Vanilla Cola

● Ice

● 575g strawberries

● Sprinkles

It was sugary, it was delicious, and Raven Branwen’s face suggested she’d just taken a double-shot of discount Mistrali tequila.

“ _Uhhhk_ ,” she choked out, her entire face scrunched up as the contents of the ice cream float flowed down her esophagus. “That is disgusting.” She grabbed a paper napkin from the table, wiping her tongue in what was a rather literal palette-cleanser.

Summer’s smile faltered for a moment. “Sorry, I didn’t think it was that sweet,” she apologized, pulling the tall glass back to her side of the table, Raven’s straw still sticking out of it.

“It’s not,” Tai corrected, inhaling creamy goodness through his own tube. “But Raven’s taste buds are a lot like her personality...”

“Not this again,” Raven groaned, sinking into the booth’s bench.

“...She can only do sour, salty, and bitter.”

Raven let out the sigh she’d been holding, even as Summer let slip a small giggle at the joke. Summer brushed a few strands of hair from her face, before returning to the float. “It is _really_ good, Raven.”

On the other side of the table, Raven rolled her eyes, spreading her arms assertively along the booth. “Not a lot of sweets and dairy when I was growing up, Rose,” she reminded, this time without a melodramatic display of disgust.

“ _Or_ , my working hypothesis,” Tai replied, somehow failing to be slain by Raven’s glare, “you’re just allergic to anything warm and fuzzy. Case in point: Valentine’s Day Lover Floats.”

Raven picked at the peeling plastic coat of the booth, not really in the mood to spar with her lovers. When she looked back, though, she saw Summer’s eyes wide with anticipation, lips sealed around her straw, clearly expecting a rebuttal.

“Tai, it’s the same fucking sundae they’ve been selling here every day for the past six years,” Raven finally fired back, her expression slipping from _annoyance_ into _exasperation_. “They just added some red sprinkles and tacked five lien onto the price. Valentine’s Day is just some made-up holiday to get us all to buy shit.”

Raven folded her arms across her chest, not exactly _happy_ , but at least _satisfied_ that she’d managed to take Tai down a notch or two.

“Actually… it’s not,” Summer correctly, softly.

“Oh?” Tai asked, with much more enthusiasm in his voice than was in Raven’s expression.

“ _Mm-hm_ ,” Summer continued, finishing a sip. “It used to be a Royal holiday. Like… _centuries_ ago, _way_ pre-War. ‘Valentine’ is actually a corruption of the old adjective for Vale: ‘ _Valentyian_ ’. Somewhere along the way the pronunciation changed and it stopped being about the King, but it’s not…” she hesitated for a second “... _‘made up_ ’.”

Raven raised her eyebrows a little, but otherwise remained completely still. She hadn’t known that, but it didn’t surprise her that Rose had. Their Team Leader had always been more into the ‘ancient history’ stuff, all the myths and legends and misremembered histories. No one else in STRQ was, and Raven least of all. Her concerns were much more… _immediate_.

Tai let out a chuckle. “She’s gotcha there, babe.”

Taiyang Xiao Long might have been the only person who could call her _babe_ and expect to walk away with all their limbs attached to the right sockets. But that didn’t mean she had to _like_ him.

“Whatever,” Raven sulked, with all the faked apathy of the teenager she had until recently been. “You two enjoy dinner. I’ll be at the bar.”

* * *

“So there I was… surrounded by bandits on all sides,” Qrow regaled, slouching a few inches along the bartop. “Blood gushing from my leg. Completely outta Dust. Sun’s going down and those orphans behind me are just a flare for the Grimm. So what do I do?”

He paused, both for dramatic effect and to take a swig of his beer.

“I-”

“-hide in a ditch with the kids while the rest of your team beat thirty bandits senseless.” Raven grabbed Qrow by the collar of his shirt, yanking him back from the buxom blonde he’d been embellishing to.

“Um, excuse me?” asked the woman, as Raven seated herself between the two of them.

“Yeah.” Raven signalled the bartender. “Now ask my baby brother what he did during his Initiation trials.”

“Okay, now-” Qrow began, raising his hands up in a vaguely-pleading manner. “Absolutely _nobody_ could have seen that coming, and everything washed out by the time we-” He poked his head around Raven’s shoulders, realizing that his potential-paramour had already excused herself. “Well, thanks for that, Raven. Really had my back there.”

The bartender arrived, pouring Raven a whiskey on the rocks, not needing to ask. “And ruin your perfect streak of loveless V-Days?” Her grin was more than a little sadistic, before vanishing behind her glass.

“Where would I be without you,” Qrow asked, dryly, taking a sip from his bottle. “Though on the topic of _loveless_ , why exactly are you _here_ and not _there_?” He gestured vaguely with his head, towards the booth that Tai and Summer were still snuggling in.

Raven slouched forward on the bar. “They’re being very…” she fumbled for words ...“ _romantic_ , right now. Boxed chocolates and cards in red envelopes.” Raven took a sip. “Not really my thing.”

“No kiddin’.”

“So I figured I’d let the lovebirds have fun without me raining on everything.” Raven found a coaster and spun it lazily on the counter.

“What, you don’t think you and I are the _lovebirds_?” Qrow asked, mischief in his eye.

Raven smiled a little, despite her intent of sulking. “Well… we’ve got half of it…”

“I’ll drink to that,” Qrow replied, immediately proceeding to.

The twins sat in silence for a few seconds, listening to the festive hubbub around them. The venue was a familiar one, a bar that - by virtue of being the closest eatery to the Beacon Airship Ferry Terminal - was a familiar haunt to every Huntsmen in Vale. Tai and Summer had both been going to it since before they’d even entered the Academy, and Team STRQ had returned countless times since. Nothing had changed, impressively, from the dated décor to the grease-heavy menu to the elderly gentleman running the place.

Only STRQ was different. A bit older and helluva lot wiser.

“Y’know, that’s actually rather considerate of you, Raven,” Qrow said, breaking the comfortable silence.

Raven glanced sideways. “Oh?”

“Yeah. I mean, instead of crapping all over their fun, you’re letting them enjoy themselves.” Qrow nudged his shoulder against hers. “Look at you, thinking of others…”

Raven rolled her eyes. “You’re being rather charitable to my motives,” she muttered, finishing the last of her glass. “Any plans for tonight?”

Qrow shrugged, allowing his sister to change the topic. “Going home to a cold and empty bed, by the looks of it.”

Raven punched his bicep. “C’mon. Put something on my tab. We’ll both avoid cursing the others tonight.”

* * *

Summer Rose finished the last of the sundae, after playfully fighting over the strawberry dregs with Taiyang. He’d wrapped an arm around her, pulling her close, a reassuring presence. She felt warm and fuzzy, basking in her boyfriend’s radiant heat.

But that was it. _Just_ her boyfriend’s. Summers’ eyes blinked open, having found herself halfway to a nap.

“Do you think Raven’s okay?” she murmured, her voice low and silken.

“What? Yeah,” Tai replied, squeezing Summer a little closer. “Her ‘tough girl’ _schtick_ just doesn’t do well with V-Day.”

Summer let out a sigh, a soft and breezy breath. “It’s not a _schtick_ ,” she corrected, sounding the word out like she was trying it for the first time.

“Yeah, I know,” Tai conceded.

“I don’t want her to feel… _excluded_.” Summer straightened up, Taiyang releasing his hold on her shoulder.

“Does our Fearless Leader have a plan?” Tai asked, already knowing the answer.

Summer grinned. “Yes, Tai, she _does…_ ”


	2. Chapter 2

* * *

The solution, in Summer’s mind, was a simple twist on a tired cliché. Raven might not have had much of an appetite for the festive trappings of _Valentyian Day_ , but it wasn’t like she was above and beyond romantic passion. It was just a matter of hooking Raven with the elements of the day that she was mostly likely to enjoy.

The carnal parts.

Summer, Taiyang and Raven shared a large house on the outskirts of Vale (Qrow also kept a room, but he stayed at his own flat across town unless he had a good reason not to). It was close enough to the Vale Aerodrome that they could catch an airship to anywhere in a hurry, remote enough that they actually enjoyed some degree of seclusion and privacy. Both of which they’d had an increased need for as of late. They’d become local celebrities after winning the Vytal Tournament in their senior year at Beacon, followed by sequentially winning the four tournaments that encompassed the Kingdoms’ Crown. Add on the fact that their dashing heroics made the papers once or twice a month, and you had a pretty good explanation for why they’d found a home a little off the beaten path.

(And - while nobody said it aloud - Raven didn’t mind having Beacon Tower out of her sight for a few hours.)

Summer returned home alone, having sent Tai off with a short list of errands to be run. Leaving _plenty_ of time for (a) her to set the mood and (b) Raven to finish up at the bar. Neither should have taken _too_ long, which was perfect for her plans.

She crossed the threshold, closing the door behind her. While they all maintained separate rooms - irregular sleep schedules demanded no less - as often as not the three shared a bedroom in the basement: a big, windowless room usually littered with clothes and blankets and imported weapon components. Summer herself would’ve preferred they’d taken the room on the top floor, with its view overlooking the Isle of Patch, but Raven had claimed that perch as her own. From street level, the room looked like an attic, which was helpful for when she needed to discreetly come and go (in her _other_ form).

Summer unlaced her boots, then closed her eyes. She visualized the path between _here_ and _bed_ , the route through a winding hallway, down a flight of stairs, past the bathroom, and into their bedroom. _Easy_.

With a kick from her Semblance, Summer flew to the sheets, shedding clothes and petals in her wake.

* * *

The rest of Qrow’s night went a lot like the start of Qrow’s night.

He loved his sister. He really did. Even if they tended to show it in not-particularly fuzzy ways. But Raven was, he had to admit, pretty cool. Not to mention literally the only person on Remnant who could actually relate to everything he’d gone through. And she could match him for drinks, which was always a plus.

_Terrible_ wingman, though.

“Haha, sure, always happy to meet a fan,” Qrow said, reclining on his stool and whipping out a ballpoint pen. One of the more intangible perks of winning all those tournaments had been the honest-to-Gods Huntsmen groupies. He’d have been a lot more enthusiastic a fighter if he’d known that there were _fan clubs_ for these sorts of things. _Sure_ , a lot of them were borderline stalkers (Summer and Raven got the worst of that), but every so often he’d find a cute provincial lass who had a thing for _dark and mysterious Huntsmen_.

“Izzat with two _b_ s or two _v_ s?” he asked, groping around the bar for a napkin to scrawl his signature on.

“Both!” the woman replied, practically bouncing with excitement.

“Aaand where’d you say you’re from? Not ‘ere, right?”

Raven let out a sigh, rubbing her cheeks with her hands. “Don’t sleep with the fans, Qrow,” she half-chided, half-pleaded. “Remember what happened to Team IRRN?”

Qrow’s expression soured, ripping his gaze from the fangirl to his sister. “Well, thanks, _now_ I do.” He signed his autograph and handed the stranger her note, before swivelling back around on his stool. Raven shot the woman a look which clearly conveyed that her window of opportunity was now shut.

“I suppose I should thank you. For keeping me safe from all the _perilous_ love I might be finding.” He signalled for another drink, and a pricey one. If they were going on Raven’s tab, he was damn-welling making the most of it. “Keeping my heart from all that dangerous flutterin’.”

Raven elbowed him. “Nah, I just thought she could do better than the team’s second-worst fighter.”

Qrow let out an indignant grunt. “You really think I’m the second-worst fighter?”

Raven finished her drink. “No, I was being nice. You're _easily_ the worst.”

* * *

Taiyang returned to the STRQ Mansion, unlocking the front door with a tap of his Scroll. It was a somewhat awkward maneuver, on account of the fact that his arms were laden with bags from the half-dozen shops Summer had sent him running off to. She was clearly getting _something_ ready, though what it was he had no idea. Not an entirely uncommon situation in STRQ.

He set the bags down, flicking on a hallway light. “Hello? Hey, anyone home?”

* * *

Summer sat on the bed, legs tucked up, feet nestled beneath the sheets, clad in her pajama bottoms and nothing else. Spread open across her legs was an old leather-bound tome, one of dozens Ozpin had dumped on her after graduation. It was a lot like the others, an archaic collection of folk tales, illustrated with reproductions of the woodblock prints which had originally accompanied the texts.

More relevantly, on her head were a pair of state-of-the-art Atlesian headphones, which provided crystal-clear sound for her music and the cancellation of just about everything else.

_This will be the day we've waited for_

_This will be the day we open up the door_

Da na nana na na naaaananana

Da na na na na na naaaa na na na

_Welcome to a world of new solutions._

_Welcome to a world of bloody evolution._

Summer turned a page.

* * *

Taiyang grumbled to himself, kicking off his shoes and walking over to the closet, in which a broom and dustpan were kept. Summer had been slow in discovering her Semblance - a ‘ _late blossoming_ ’, as Ozpin not-at-all-creepily put it - and she was still in the habit of blasting off in a stream of petals whenever she was just _in a hurry_.

Which was fine, except when she did it _in their home_ , because then _somebody_ needed to clean it up.

Grumbling under his breath, Tai began sweeping up the petals, following the trail down to the bedroom. At first he’d been entranced by the mysteriously bits of roses, but reality had inevitably ensued. Poetry made mundane by the necessity of sweeping it up.

_Petal. Petal. Petal. Petal._ Sock.

Taiyang sighed, scooping up the garment immediately identifiable as Summer’s. More petals. Another sock. Petals. Skirt.

“What am I, your dad?” Tai muttered to himself, continuing to scoop up petals and garments on his way into the basement.

He’d collected almost the entirety of her outfit before he reached the basement, chucking everything into the laundry hamper or a garbage pail. Through the door ajar to their bedroom he could hear Summer blasting her music, no doubt lost in her own world.

Tai considered walking in and chewing her out for the mess - what were they, _freshmen?_ \- but a reflective sniff of his scent confirmed he was still smelling like a bar. Which was definitely not his preferred brand of cologne.

And so he made his way to the bathroom, spun the faucets open, and closed the door.

* * *

After making sure Qrow had found a cab back to his place - flying while drunk was as tempting as it was stupid - Raven trekked her own way home, glancing over her shoulder to make sure none of Qrow’s stalkers had transferred on to her.

There was no one to be seen; she was in luck. Or perhaps the opposite, given her mood.

She swung the wrought-iron gate open, resisting the temptation to just fly up to her ‘nest’, as everyone had irreverently insisted on calling her room. As she approached the house she noticed that the lights to the basement were on, as were the ones in the foyer. No doubt Tai and Rose were hand-feeding each other chocolates, or exchanging slips of paper with naughty promises written on them. Or whatever it was that saccharine couples did.

The door closed behind her. Despite herself, Raven strained her ears. But there were no cries of her name, no patter of approaching footsteps.

Raven locked the door and began climbing the stairs up to her bedroom.

* * *

Tai made his way to the basement’s bedroom - still dripping wet from his shower - wearing nothing but a towel around his hips.

“Heya, Summer,” he declared, undoing the towel as soon as her eyes drifted his way.

“Hey there, dragon,” Summer replied, sliding her headphones to her neck. Her eyes swept him up and down as he made a show of drying off.

“I’m sure you’re wondering where my clothes are,” Tai began, rubbing his hair with the towel.

Summer raised an eyebrow. “Not really? I assume they’re in the laundry.”

“ _Exactly_!” Tai exclaimed, tossing the damp towel at his girlfriend. Summer blocked it with a foot, kicking it off the bed. “In the _laundry_. Where clothes _belong_. Not thrown all over the house like you’re fourteen again!”

“Whatever, _daddy_ ,” Summer teased, her eyes returning to her book. She winced a little at her choice of words.

Then she slammed her book shut. “ _Wait_ , did you clean _everything_ up? The clothes and the petals?”

“Yeah, and a _thank you_ would not be out-of-line,” Tai grumbled.

Summer bounced her head against the headboard. “Those were for _Raven_ you dunce!”

Tai dropped the towel. “Oh. Well now that makes perfect sense.”


	3. Chapter 3

* * *

Raven had made her way to the windowsill without even thinking, one foot placed thoughtlessly in front of the other, a cool easterly breeze blowing over her. In her right hand was a lighter, in her left, a cig. Untaxed cigarettes had been some of her tribe’s most valuable commodities, smuggled overland and sold to disreputable middlemen for the urbanites. Not as profitable as more illicit substances, like uncut Dust or hard drugs, but nobody was going to send cops beyond the walls to catch petty traffickers. She and Qrow had grown up surrounded by them, and the censorius attitudes of their classmates towards the little sticks had baffled both Branwens, at least at first.

Qrow had managed to kick the habit - more to improve his odds with Summer than out of any sense of self-preservation - and Raven had quit… three or four times. Only when she _needed_ them, or so she promised herself, Summer’s pleading eyes notwithstanding...

Raven stared into the Moon, its fragments floating through the heavens. Pale white, so much so Summer’s colors... “Fuck.”

Flicking the cigarette unlit out the window, Raven returned to her bed, yanking her katana out from under her pillow and a whetstone from beneath the bed. She rested the blade across her thighs, and began the ritualistic sharpening.

It wasn’t quite as satisfying as a hit of nicotine, but there was something soothing in the motions all the same. Something she could do without thought, engrossing herself in a pattern. She’d used to play with her necklaces, flicking her thumb along the beads of the cords, before she’d moved on to other habits.

_Scratch. Scratch. Scratch._

Though this time, the whetstone wasn’t enough to keep her mind from wandering. To the wilderness outside her window, the looming monsters their Headmaster-turned-Commissar was pitting them against. The fleeting joys and eternal struggles.

She thought of STRQ.

If Ozpin had had to pick any of them for a life of violence, it should have been her, and her alone. It had been the life Raven had been born into, and the one she expected to die with. And it _suited_ her, far more than it did her brother. Despite their shared upbringing he’d fitted himself into Vale far better than she had, like he _belonged_. _He_ would never return to the Tribe - Raven could tell without asking - to the petty savagery of their fleeting family.

And Tai and Rose... 

_Scratch. Scratch. Scratch._

Raven’s mind wandered to the bedroom in the basement, where the two were no doubt expressing love in ways she just never would. Just… _normally_. All their lives might be some fucked up fairy-tale at this point - fighting monsters and demons while trying not to become beasts themselves - but Tai and Rose were still… _good_. Good people. Loving and caring and all the other things STRQ was supposed to be _protecting_ instead of _feeling_. There was a reason Ozpin had done what he’d done to the twins. Compared to Tai or Rose, they hadn’t had nearly as much humanity to lose.

Raven’s whetstone halted on her blade, the folded steel sword shimmering in the moonlight. Something wet splattered against the metal, near the sheathe.

_What right did Ozpin have_ , Raven seethed to herself, _to conscript them in his war?_ To turn Tai and Rose into weapons, to be pointed, spent, and discarded. She had no doubt all of STRQ would have volunteered for Ozpin’s quest, but he’d never quite given them the choice, had he? Not when the fate of all life on Remnant hinged on dancing to his merry tune.

Raven rubbed her nose with the back of her hand.

Maybe Rose and Tai weren’t even in the basement. Maybe Ozpin had summoned them for another one of his missions, plucking them from their quiet contentment for another ‘adventure’. It had been like that ever since Beacon, since Summer’s silver eyes. The never-ending stream of ‘special assignments’; missed classes and unattended proms. Sometimes as Team STRQ, but often just two at a time. _More discreet_ , he’d assured them, than the whole quartet disappearing.

And sometimes it’d just been Rose. Alone against the world.

Raven’s Scroll buzzed, and she snatched it, the whetstone clattering to the floor with a _thud_. A message from Tai, direct to her, on their Team’s private comm channel.

_Summer needs you_

Raven felt her heart pounding in her chest. It was that horrible sensation: waking up from a dream, a nightmare, only to realize that it hadn’t been a dream at all. Adrenaline coursed through her veins before she had a chance to think, leaping off the bed, katana in hand.

She scrunched up her face, willing a portal into existence in front of her. Its black core pulsated in the air before her, its rim red and angry.

Raven threw herself through it.

* * *

“Aaaaand _sent_ ,” Taiyang declared, placing his Scroll on the dresser. “Over/under for ten minutes?”

Taiyang was standing on the other side of bedroom, as much space between him and Summer as Euclidean geometry allowed. Summer had - with no missed notes of annoyance - flitted a few feet with the aid of her Semblance, creating a trail of petals for the second time that day. The trail was significantly shorter this time around, though, merely a few meters between the door and Summer Rose herself, propped up on pillows on the bed.

“Depends on what you texted her,” Summer replied, playing with the drawstrings on her pajama bottoms.

The ‘plan’ (Taiyang was hesitant to give so laudatory a noun to Summer’s scheme) was simple - text Raven, bring her to the basement, surprise her with love and affection. Her portal would appear in front of Tai, which meant she’d emerge facing _Summer_ , and Rose Petal Trail 2.0 would be unleashed.

“I just said _‘Summer needs you_ ’,” Tai quoted, crossing his arms in front of his chest. “Emphasis on _needs_. Lotta subtext, but just vague enough to be enticing.”

“Oh.” Summer rolled her neck. “I hope that tone isn’t lost in the message. Otherwise it kind of sounds like...”

“...Yeah, I know what you mean. Hang on, I gotta take a leak.”

Summer let out an exasperated sigh. “Hurry up. I don’t want Raven portaling herself into the bathroom.”

Tai excused himself, continuing the conversation from down the hall, his voice echoing. “You’re really assuming Raven’s going to use her Semblance to appear. What if she’s flying? Hell, what if she just _walks_ -”

A red-trimmed portal _tore_ the empty space in front of Summer, a gust of cold air suddenly buffeting her. And then Raven Branwen herself was barrelling out of it, a sword in her hand and fire in her eyes.

She rolled as she landed, the blade she’d sharpened to a razor’s edge cutting the air with a sickening _swish_. Muscle memory carried her into a swordsman’s stance, one-and-a-half hands resting on the hilt of her katana, its edge now singing as Dust imbued the blade.

“ _Whoa, whoa, whoa_ Raven, it’s okay, we’re safe, it’s okay…” Summer pleaded, getting the words out as fast as she could speak them. She flashed her hands in a gesture of peace, even as her eyes went wide with excitement.

“ _Rose_ ,” Raven said, her voice raw, her breaths heavy. Her stance relaxed by degrees. “I thought you were…”

Raven’s sentence trailed off as her mind caught up with the situation, her sword dropping to her side. Summer smiled, a gay and silly grin, as she saw the relief flush through her girlfriend’s body. “I just needed you _here_ ,” Summer clarified, patting a pile of petals on her pillow. “With _us_.”

“Oh.” Raven exhaled, then fumbled about for her sheathe. Realizing she’d left it upstairs in her haste to get _here_ , she set the blade gingerly atop a dresser. “Well. Here I am.”

Summer grinned. “Here you are.”

“Ahh crap did I miss the big reveal?” Tai asked, jogging back from the bathroom. “If that ‘trail of petals’ trick works on _Raven Branwen_ then-”

Taiyang stopped himself, an expression of deep concentration suddenly crossing his face.

“Tai, you there?” Raven asked, raising an eyebrow as she nudged him in the shoulder.

“You just opened a Portal directly to Summer,” Taiyang exclaimed, mentally connecting the dots. “There’s no way that was a link to _me_.”

Raven blinked.

“Huh. I think he’s right, Raven,” Summer cooed, crawling on her hands and knees across the bed, leaning up to wrap her arms around Raven’s waist. “Unless your brother’s hiding under the bed.”

“He’s not.” Raven swallowed. Her brain failed her, allowing her body to be guided to the bed by Rose and Taiyang.

It had been the elephant in the room, the sword hanging by a thread that nobody wanted to talk about. Raven’s Semblance allowed her to open a Portal - to _connect_ herself - to those she was closest with. At first, when she’d unlocked her Aura, it had just been Qrow and her _grootouders_. Then just Qrow.

It’d stayed like that for many years, well after Team STRQ had formed, even after _STR_ had become, colloquially, an _item_. Nobody had thought much of it, until Raven had opened a portal to Tai, one night in Mountain Glenn. From that night on, Raven had had _two_ souls she could demonstrably link herself to.

Summer Rose wasn’t the type to press - and nobody else had brought it up - but _everyone_ wondered what made her the odd-woman out.

As of tonight: nothing.

Summer was quite clearly ecstatic, blanketing Raven with kisses even as she helped her out of her outerwear. Raven still seemed a little dumbstruck, the revelation of her bond amplified by the adrenal high she was still riding. Summer snuggled up on her right, Taiyang took her left.

“Well this is going to save us a lot of time commuting,” Taiyang mused, sliding an arm behind Raven’s neck. “Summer can race ahead, and you use your Portals to carry the rest of us through.”

“I’m Team Leader,” Summer murmured, “and tactical revisions can wait until tomorrow.” She hooked one leg around Raven’s, ratcheting their bodies together.

“I’m so glad I can finally connect to you,” Raven said, her voice uncharacteristically low and raw.

Summer nestled close, planting a kiss on Raven’s cheek. “I love you, too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Happy Valentine’s Day. Even single, I fucking love this day.
> 
> This is my first attempt writing for this ship, which seems a little odd, since I love the characters that exist in the still-undefined prequel era of _RWBY_. I tinkered with their characterizations just a bit more than normal, to account for the drift between pre-canon and canon: Taiyang has a bit more bravado, Qrow and Raven are a touch more open. And I got to write Summer Rose for the first time. I tried to keep her like Ruby (“ _You sound just like your mother_ ”, quoth the Raven), but a bit more subdued: elfin and ethereal. If Ruby Rose is “[This Will be the Day](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNtcP6EXm3s)”, then Summer is [the acoustic remix](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gcc0vmXND0).
> 
> Legalese disclaimer: The recipe for the float in Chapter 1 (mostly) comes from “[How to Make a Coke Float](https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Coke-Float)” on [wikiHow](https://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page), the text of which is licensed by the [Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Creative Commons License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/). Because Lord knows _I_ couldn’t come up with that. And a bit of Qrow and Raven’s banter will be [familiar](https://youtu.be/3vx56NwYj4Y?t=438) to you _RvB_ enthusiasts.
> 
> So this was written for the prompt: “ _rose petal trail for poly STR_ ”. Which actually threw me for quite a loop, because I wanted to figure out a way to have all three parties to the relationship involved (roughly) equally, instead of just _‘Person X leaves flowers for Person Y_.’ I can’t say I’m 100% happy with how the plot turned out (it ended up kinda side-stepping the plot device of the prompt), but the dynamic is just so fun to explore. I do wish I knew how to (a) answer a Tumblr prompt in a reasonable length and (b) pick a genre and stick to it.
> 
> As always, please send me any thoughts, feedback, reviews, criticism. It’s really the only way I’ll improve as a writer. Also feel free to hit me up on [reddit](https://www.reddit.com/user/pvoberstein/) or [Tumblr](http://www.pvoberstein.tumblr.com/).


End file.
